both sound in theory and acceptable in practice. This has been the purpose of a series of conferences held at Oakland, Detroit, and in New York City. It has been found that the subject of pensions is little understood and that much legislation has been more than useless. But it is clear that by cooperation of teachers, officers, experts, and the public a safe, sound, and efficient system can be secured in? all parts of the United States.

The work of the committee this year has been in two directions. In cooperation with the Bureau of Education the present bulletin has been prepared. The purpose of this bulletin is to show 'the extent of the teachers' pension movement in a brief and summary way and to collect in convenient form pension legislation for public school-teachers in the United States. This bulletin is a natural introduction to the report on teachers' pensions, which, at the request of the committee, is now being prepared for it by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

STATE PENSION SYSTEMS FOR PUBLIC-SCHOOL TEACHERS.

INTRODUCTION.

Pension and retirement legislation for teachers has developed rapidly in the past four or five years. Local retirement funds have in most instances given way to State systems, and there has come a general realization that some plan of retirement for teachers is essential in an efficient public-school system. To show the extent of the teachers' pension movement in a brief and summary way is the purpose of this bulletin. No attempt is made to argue for or against any particular form of pension plan, or to go analytically into the history of the pension movement, since these have already been the subject of careful study by competent investigators. In the past half dozen years pension literature has been enriched by the report of the Massachusetts commission on old-age pensions, annuities, and insurance (Boston, 1910), which afforded a background for the careful study of teachers' pensions in the same State three years later; by various Government reports, including summaries of the pension situation for teachers in the United States and Europe, of which the more important are Senate Document No. 823, of the Sixty-first Congress, and Bulletin, 1913, No. 34 of the United States Bureau of Education (Teachers' Pensions in Great Britain); by "The Teacher and Old Age," Mr. Prosser's survey of teachers' retirement systems, which is especially significant in its statement of the case from the standpoint of social insurance; and by the numerous contributions of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which, based on practical experience in the administration of college pensions, properly emphasize the fundamental actuarial problems involved in the making of pensions for any class of employees.1

The present bulletin seeks to show the existing situation in the various States; to outline the plans that have been adopted, and give some indication of the results; and to reproduce for the information of those studying teachers' pensions several of the pension laws now on the statute books.

STATES HAVING PENSION SYSTEMS.

State systems of pensions or retirement for public-school teachers are maintained in 33 States. Of these, 21 are State-wide in their application, 5 affect two or more cities in the State, and 7 apply to a single city or county.

1 See especially the Tenth Annual Report (1915) and Bulletin No. 9

Of the other States, the Alabama system affects only Mobile County,

which includes the city of Mobile; the Colorado law covers Denver, Pueblo, and Colorado Springs; Connecticut has separate laws affecting New Haven and New London; and Delaware's system is for

1 In some of these States the law does not apply to teachers in cities that have already established retirement systems. (See table.)

The 21 States having State-wide pension systems are: Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.1

EXTENT OF THE TEACHERS' PENSION MOVEMENT.

States having teachers' pension laws that apply to certain cities or counties (localities indicated by A).
States having State-wide pension systems for public-school teachers.
States without teachers' pension laws.

port, and Paducah ("all cities of the second class"). The Louisiana act applies to the city of New Orleans; the Nebraska law affects Omaha only; Oregon's optional law has been availed of by the city of Portland; Tennessee has a retirement system for Chattanooga, and the West Virginia law applies to the city of Wheeling.

Wilmington only. Pennsylvania has a local option law under which 11 cities have established retirement systems. The Kansas law affects "all cities of the first class"-Topeka, Kansas City, and Wichita. Kentucky has one law affecting Louisville ("all cities of the first class"), and another affecting Lexington, Covington, New

TYPES OF TEACHERS' PENSION SYSTEMS.

Contributory plan-Supported jointly by teachers and the public.
Noncontributory plan-Maintained wholly by public funds.

Supported by the teachers.

Double system-One system maintained by the State; the other by the teachers (New Jersey). NOTE.-The Louisville, Ky., plan is supported by the teachers.

DATES OF ESTABLISHMENT OF PENSION SYSTEMS.

The teachers' pension movement is a recent development in the United States. The teachers' retirement fund of New Jersey dates from 1896. The Ohio noncontributory plan was adopted in 1897. In 1907 Rhode Island established a State-wide retirement system on a noncontributory basis. Virginia enacted pension legislation in 1908, Colorado and Nebraska in 1909, and Louisiana in 1910.

Most of the development in teachers' pensions has come since 1911. Four States created systems in that year (Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Wisconsin); 2 in 1912 (Arizona and Kentucky); 4 in 1913 (California, Maine, Utah, and Vermont); 3 in 1914 (Kentucky for cities of the second class-Massachusetts, and North Dakota); and 10 in 1915 (Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and West Virginia).

TYPES OF PENSION PLANS.

Contributory systems, supported partly by public funds and partly by contributions from the teachers, prevail in 21 States, 13 having a State-wide pension law and 8 having local systems. These 21 States are: California, Connecticut (New London), Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky (cities of the second class), Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. New Jersey's twofold system, comprising a retirement plan supported by the teachers and a straight pension paid by the State, is in effect a contributory system, the teachers insuring themselves against disability and the State insuring them against old age.

The noncontributory plan, where the State finances the entire scheme without the aid of contributions from the teachers, is in force in eight States Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. Although six of these are States with State-wide systems, the total number of teachers affected is not large as compared with States having the contributory system. 2

The teachers finance the pension system entirely without the help of public funds in Utah, Michigan,' Kentucky (cities of the first class), and Louisiana (New Orleans), and in one of the two systems in New Jersey, as described elsewhere."

1 For New Jersey, see preceding paragraph; see also Appendix C.

2 For example, Arizona had 5 pensioners in 1916 and New Hampshire 65.